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Enabling Spacecraft Formation Flying in Any Earth Orbit Through Spaceborne GPS and Enhanced Autonomy TechnologiesFormation flying is quickly revolutionizing the way the space community conducts autonomous science missions around the Earth and in space. This technological revolution will provide new, innovative ways for this community to gather scientific information, share this information between space vehicles and the ground, and expedite the human exploration of space. Once fully matured, this technology will result in swarms of space vehicles flying as a virtual platform and gathering significantly more and better science data than is possible today. Formation flying will be enabled through the development and deployment of spaceborne differential Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and through innovative spacecraft autonomy techniques, This paper provides an overview of the current status of NASA/DoD/Industry/University partnership to bring formation flying technology to the forefront as quickly as possible, the hurdles that need to be overcome to achieve the formation flying vision, and the team's approach to transfer this technology to space. It will also describe some of the formation flying testbeds, such as Orion, that are being developed to demonstrate and validate these innovative GPS sensing and formation control technologies.
Document ID
20000031724
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Bauer, F. H.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Bristow, J. O.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Carpenter, J. R.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Garrison, J. L.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Hartman, K. R.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Lee, T.
(Computer Sciences Corp. Lanham, MD United States)
Long, A. C.
(Computer Sciences Corp. Lanham, MD United States)
Kelbel, D.
(Computer Sciences Corp. Lanham, MD United States)
Lu, V.
(Computer Sciences Corp. Lanham, MD United States)
How, J. P.
(Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA United States)
Busse, F.
(Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA United States)
Date Acquired
August 19, 2013
Publication Date
December 14, 2000
Subject Category
Aircraft Communications And Navigation
Meeting Information
Meeting: GPS Workshop
Location: Breckenridge, CO
Country: United States
Start Date: February 1, 2000
End Date: February 28, 2000
Sponsors: European Space Agency
Funding Number(s)
PROJECT: RTOP 572-315-80-21-78
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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